I have several of these bad boys. Will attempt to flash when I get home. Thanks for the writeup. I even went as far as buying a p410 on eBay just to flash. I had no idea you could flash without one.
I've just been through the above steps, with a HP SAS expander card that had Firmware 1.00 installed, and it has not updated... even after a power cycle.
Rig:
Norco RPC-4224
SuperMicro X8SIL-F
IBM M1015 - Flashed to IT Mode with Avago/LSI 9211-8i firmware 20.00.07.00
Using Ubuntu 16.04.01 Live USB/CD (i386 build).
output of lsscsi command:
the first sg_write_buffer command takes approx 30-40 seconds to complete, with no errors indicated. the second sg_write_buffer command takes less than a second.Code:root@ubuntu:~# lssci [0:0:2:0] enclosu HP HP SAS EXP Card 1.00 - [1:0:0:0] disk ATA KINGSTON SUV400S DS6D /dev/sdc [5:0:0:0] disk ATA KINGSTON SUV400S DS6D /dev/sde
A power cycle, and recheck of the firmware revisionb does not show any change.
(Note: I have tried both CP019687.scexe and CP022989.scexe) both have the same results.
I am open to suggestions![]()
Drives appear to negotiate at 3.0Gbps, which is good.Matt,
EDIT: One more thing to check is I had a single SAS cable plugged into the port labeled backplane. Also there is a note on the other forum where one person flashed their card and it did not increase rev number but started negotiating SATA at 3GB. You might want to try plugging in drive to see what link negotiates at.
You're correct, I have room for a lot more drives in future. I have a variety of drives attached, seagate 2g, wd 4g, 1 hgst 6g, 1 hgst 2g. When drives are attached to expander and system booted to OS, sometimes this or that drive will show, but vary randomly. Reboots generally show different drive(s) almost every time. Tried different OS's also, so doesn't seem to be card driver issue, especially when the card by itself shows all drives in any os.What model(s) of drive are you using? Once a friend was trying to use a bunch of different models and sizes of drive with an hp sas expander with the final firmware, and two older smaller drives just wouldn't show up through the expander, but worked fine difectly attached to the lsi controller (some sas2008 card, I forget which) with no bios on the card, so we didn't see if they were seen at boot. He ended up replacing the drives anyway, so we never found the root cause, but chalked it up to first generation sata drive quirks.
If you only have 8 drives anyway, what is your plan with the expander? (I suspect adding more drives later...)
Hi, Sorry to bring up such an old thread but I do have a query for you, I have not yet installed linux on my server and am still using windblowz at the moment as I am testing drives and the Avago UI comes in handy.Matt,
I'm afraid I can't really help much. I only had the one card to flash and I didn't have any issues. The only thing I see that is different between your experience and mine is I started with FW 2.06 and used ubuntu 14. You might want to try ubuntu 14, if we can get enough people posting their results we can eventually put together definitive how to on flashing these things without HP Raid card.
EDIT: One more thing to check is I had a single SAS cable plugged into the port labeled backplane. Also there is a note on the other forum where one person flashed their card and it did not increase rev number but started negotiating SATA at 3GB. You might want to try plugging in drive to see what link negotiates at.
Thanks, but I'm nowhere near there. I'm in MI.I just flashed a couple using an old LSI 1608e card I found in a parts box (the older chipset that doesn't support drives > 2.2 TB), after I flashed the card to IT mode. Doesn't need to be one of the newer SAS2008 chips. If you happen to be near Seattle, WA, you could come over with the expanders and a couple beers and we could get them flashed in no time...
That LSI still need to be crossflashed to a different firmware (IT) to support flashing right? I have SFF-8087 cables.Edit: $9 on ebay (you'd also need a SFF-8087 cable): LSI SAS3081E-R 3Gb/s 8-Port Low Profile RAID Storage Controller | eBay
Yeah. It was pretty easy - basically the same process as cross-flashing a M1015, but with sasflash.exe instead of sas2flsh.exe.That LSI still need to be crossflashed to a different firmware (IT) to support flashing right? I have SFF-8087 cables.
Just wanted to say thanks for this tipp to the one who found this out originally and all others who spread this. Thank you very much! Great work.I just received my my SAS expander today. Came with FW 2.06. I was in the mood for a bit of pain so I decided to try to flash it to 2.10 using on a supermicro board. Besides only having i386 binaries the entire process was painless. I did experience what others have and the firmware revision did not increment right after flashing, but a powercycle solved that problem.
Good Luck!
Rig:
HBA - Dell H310 Flashed with 9211-IT Firmware (P20)
Ubuntu 14.04 i386 Live USB (i386 is important! unless you want to compile your own flashing binaries)
Steps:Code:root@ubuntu:~# lsscsi [6:0:0:0] enclosu HP HP SAS EXP Card 2.10 - [7:0:0:0] disk PNY USB 3.0 FD 1100 /dev/sda
- Boot to ubuntu live USB/CD i386!
- sudo su -
- apt-get install lsscsi
- lsscsi -g | grep HP (notate /dev/sg*)
- cd /tmp
- curl -O http://sg.danny.cz/sg/p/libsgutils2-2_1.39-0.1_i386.deb
- curl -O http://sg.danny.cz/sg/p/sg3-utils_1.39-0.1_i386.deb
- dpkg -i libsgutils2-2_1.39-0.1_i386.deb
- dpkg -i sg3-utils_1.39-0.1_i386.deb
- get FW from Drivers & Software - HPE Support Center.
- chmod +x CP019687.scexe
- ./CP019687.scexe --unpack=tmp
- mv /tmp/tmp/PUF21000.bin /tmp
- sg_write_buffer --mode=dmc_offs_defer --bpw=4096 --in=PUF21000.bin /dev/sgX (change X to what you notated earlier)
- sg_write_buffer --mode=activate_mc /dev/sgX (change X to what you notated earlier)
Credit:
- lsscsi -g | grep HP (might still show old FW version, if thats the case time to powercycle!)
How to upgrade the firmware of HP SAS expander card without Smart Array controller or Proliant Server?
My adventure was not so fun. A FreeDOS USB stick didn't work since the system I was using has a UEFI BIOS. I had to use the use the UEFI method, which requires a very specific bootx64.efi file or it won't work. Of course pretty much all the links to it in the guides are broken.Yeah. It was pretty easy - basically the same process as cross-flashing a M1015, but with sasflash.exe instead of sas2flsh.exe.
I used a FreeDOS boot USB stick made with Rufus. It did take me a little bit of hunting to find the firmware files and the DOS mode sasflash.exe - PM me and I can get them to you and save you the effort.
Yep, that's exactly what I did with mine.This might seem crazy, but has anyone tried hooking one of these cards to the PCI-E Risers that Cryptominers use to connect video cards to a PCI-E 1x slot?
Since this card doesn't use the PCI-E Slot for I/O and only for power, seems like a waste to plug it directly into a motherboard. You could theoretically mount this card vertically in a case and power it with a PCI-E riser that has a molex power connector. Or if there was a compelling reason to interface directly with the motherboard, could you do it through a PCI-E 1x slot while using a cryptominer PCI-E riser?
NICE! I thought that would work. So are you utilizing the PCI-E 1x connectivity? Or are you not connecting that and just powering the board with the PCI-E 16x riser? I'm guessing the latter. But I thought I'd ask.Yep, that's exactly what I did with mine.
Had one of these cards connected this way for months, working great. I found one that uses PCIe 6-pin (video card) power connection, as the power supply has lots of these (unused) connectors.This might seem crazy, but has anyone tried hooking one of these cards to the PCI-E Risers that Cryptominers use to connect video cards to a PCI-E 1x slot?
Since this card doesn't use the PCI-E Slot for I/O and only for power, seems like a waste to plug it directly into a motherboard. You could theoretically mount this card vertically in a case and power it with a PCI-E riser that has a molex power connector. Or if there was a compelling reason to interface directly with the motherboard, could you do it through a PCI-E 1x slot while using a cryptominer PCI-E riser?